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Yash Raj Films archives its rich content in a digital format

May 31, 2013 11:16:42 AM ISTBy Enkayaar, Glamsham Editorial

How many of the production houses in the countryside have taken steps to archive the rich content that they have for future research and reference? It indeed is a question that could meet with a pregnant pause, as it has been the biggest lament for the film industry when it is celebrating its hundredth year to be able to reach out to the significant mileposts of Hindi cinema. Quite a lot of them have been lost to the time as we; by our nature do not seem to have a sense of preserving the material for archives and future reference.

But things may start to change with the initiative that Yash Raj Films has taken in the hundredth year of cinema, for which indeed Yash Chopra would be very proud and blessing his team from the heavens. Yash Raj films have entered into an agreement with Dell Computers whereby all of the content that has been produced by it has been catalogued in a digital format. The objective behind converting the rich data into digitized format is to ensure that when one wants to have a specific part of the content one can leverage technology to have access to it. Dell has a proprietary archival solution which Yash Raj Films has used which would facilitate instant access to its entire film content in various digital formats. The single storage solution that Dell has put in place facilitates improved protection, scalability and responsiveness, and this has been the primary reason why YRF Films chose Dell. Now the growing archives of Yash Raj Films can be made available to them at the touch of a finger.

It is a monumental step forward in the 100th year of cinema as now the awareness seems to be building up that we need to preserve our heritage and culture. Cinema indeed is a reflection of the culture, society and its prevailing ethos. Now that Yash Raj films have taken this step, one hopes that the National Film Development Corporation, which is the biggest repository of archival material for Indian cinema would also come forward and bring into service technological innovations so that for the future researchers archival material is available in a seamless manner for study. Now that cinema is forming an integral part of academic studies it is the tools of technology that would provide facilitating device to access specific content through various algorithmic combinations. One only hopes that other production houses of the country would also join in to preserve the rich cultural history of our country that may be dumped in some box somewhere. It needs to be brought out restored and provided longevity so that future generations could document the growth of cinema.